September 1, 2006

Dear Bob,

As you know, ABC intends to air a two part miniseries, "The Path to
9/11," which purports to document the events leading up to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. ABC claims that the show is
based on the 9/11 Commission Report and, as Steve McPherson, President
of ABC Entertainment, has said: "When you take on the responsibility
of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely
critical that you get it right."

By ABC's own standard, ABC has gotten it terribly wrong. The content
of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has
a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely. It is
unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most
horrendous tragedies our country has ever known.

Despite several requests to view the miniseries, we have not been given
the courtesy of seeing it. This is particularly troubling given the
reputation of Cyrus Nowrasteh, the drama's writer/producer. Mr.
Nowrasteh has been criticized for inaccurately portraying historical
events in the past. In response to previous criticism, he has even
said, "I made a conscious effort not to contact any members of the
Administration because I didn't want them to stymie my efforts."
Indeed, while we have not been given the courtesy of a viewing, based
upon reports from people who have seen the drama you plan to air, we
understand that there are at least three significant factual errors:

-- The drama leads viewers to believe that National Security Advisor
Sandy Berger told the CIA that he would not authorize them to take a
shot at bin Laden. This is complete fiction and the event portrayed
never happened. First of all, the 9/11 Commission Report makes clear
that CIA Director George Tenet had been directed by President Clinton
and Mr. Berger to get bin Laden (p. 199 & 508-509). Secondly, Roger
Cressy, National Security Council senior director for counterterrorism
from 1999-2001, has said, on more than one occasion, "Mr. Clinton
approved every request made of him by the CIA and the U.S. military
involving using force against bin Laden and al-Qaeda."

In addition, ABC's own counter-terrorism consultant, Richard Clarke,
has said that contrary to the movie:

1) No US military or CIA personnel were on the ground in Afghanistan
and saw bin Laden;

2) The head of the Northern Alliance, Masood, was nowhere near the
alleged bin Laden camp and did not see bin Laden; and

3) CIA Director Tenet said that he could not recommend a strike on the
camp because the information was single-sourced and there would be no
way to know if bin Laden was in the target area by the time a cruise
missile hit it.

As Clarke and others will corroborate, President Clinton did in fact
approve of a standing plan to use Afghans who worked for the CIA to
capture bin Laden. The CIA's Afghan operatives were never able to
carry out the operation and the CIA recommended against inserting
Agency personnel to do it. The Department of Defense, when asked by
President Clinton to examine the use of US troops to capture bin Laden,
also recommended against that option.

-- The drama claims that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
refused to sanction a missile strike against bin Laden without first
alerting the Pakistanis and notified them over the objections of the
military. Again, this is false.

-- Using newsreel footage of President Clinton, the drama insinuates
that President Clinton was too pre-occupied with the impeachment and
the Lewinsky matter to be engaged in pursuing bin Laden. This
allegation is absurd and was directly refuted by ABC News consultant
Richard Clarke in his book, Against All Enemies: "Clinton made clear
that we were to give him our best national security advice without
regard to his personal problems. 'Do you recommend that we strike on
the 20th? Fine. Do not give me political advice or personal advice
about the timing. That's my problem. Let me worry about that.' If
we thought this was the best time to hit the Afghan camps, he would
order it and take the heat."

While these are three examples that we are aware of that are utterly
baseless, they are clearly indicative of other errors in the substance
and bent of the film. Indeed, the overall tone in the advertisements
we've seen for this drama suggest that President Clinton was
inattentive to the threat of terrorism or insufficiently intent upon
eliminating the threat from bin Laden. Note that the 9/11 Commission
Report says:

-- We believe that both President Clinton and President Bush were
genuinely concerned about the danger posed by al Qaeda." (p. 349)

-- "By May 1998 ... clearly, President Clinton's concern about
terrorism had steadily risen." (p. 102)

-- "President Clinton was deeply concerned about bin Laden. He and
his national security advisor, Samuel 'Sandy' Berger, ensured they
had a special daily pipeline of reports feeding them the latest updates
on bin Laden's reported location." (p. 175)

-- "President Clinton spoke of terrorism in numerous public
statements. In his August 5, 1996, remarks at George Washington
University, he called terrorism 'the enemy of our generation.'"
(p. 500)

We challenge anyone to read the 9/11 Commission Report and find any
basis for the false allegations noted above or the tenor of the drama,
which suggests that the Clinton Administration was inattentive to the
threat of a terrorist strike.

Frankly, the bias of the ABC drama is not surprising given the
background and political leanings of its writer/producer, Mr.
Nowrasteh, which have been well-documented on numerous conservative
blogs and talk shows in his promotion of this film. Mr. Nowrasteh's
bias can be seen in an interview he gave to David Horowitz's
conservative magazine Frontpage, during which he said:

"The 9/11 report details the Clinton's administration's response
- or lack of response - to Al Qaeda and how this emboldened Bin
Laden to keep attacking American interests. The worst example is the
response to the October, 2000 attack of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen where
17 American sailors were killed. There simply was no response.
Nothing."

But as Sandy Berger told the 9/11 Commission: "[T]o go to war, a
president needs to be able to say that his senior intelligence and law
enforcement officers have concluded who is responsible." And as the
9/11 Commission report repeatedly acknowledges, the US did not have
clear evidence of bin Laden's connection to the attack on the USS
Cole before the end of the Clinton Administration (p. 192, 193, 195 &
executive summary).

While ABC is promoting "The Path to 9/11" as a dramatization of
historical fact, in truth it is a fictitious rewriting of history that
will be misinterpreted by millions of Americans. Given your stated
obligation to "get it right," we urge you to do so by not airing
this drama until the egregious factual errors are corrected, an
endeavor we could easily assist you with given the opportunity to view
the film.

Sincerely,

Bruce R. Lindsey
Chief Executive Officer
William J. Clinton Foundation

Douglas J. Band
Counselor to President Clinton
Office of William Jefferson Clinton

Cc: Ms. Madeleine K. Albright
Mr. Samuel R. Berger
Mr. Richard A. Clarke
Mr. Stephen McPherson
Mr. George J. Mitchell
Mr. John D. Podesta
Mr. David Westin
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States